The iPad 2 speaker, not speaker.

It's funny they did not mention the speaker at all.

Even to say they have redesigned the case to make the sound clearer, or something like that.

For me, this could be a bit of a killer. I like to lay on my bed at night, with my iPad on my pillow and perhaps play a game laying on my front.

The new design looks like laying the iPad onto any soft surface will totally block the speaker grill and kill the sound output.

I hope we find out more about this. If this is the case then I much prefer the side speaker hole of the original model I have. At least I can hear the speaker on any surface I use.

Nishi100 said:

When looking on the iPad 2's specs page on Apple.com it doesn't label the speaker gill on the bottom of the iPad, Steve didn't even mention it at the event and there isn't a "feature" page for it.

Therefore, leading me to believe that it's not a speaker - but an air vent for the dual core CPU and great graphics.

What do you think?

Click to expand...

Lol. But they downgraded the speaker from stereo to mono. Plus, when you put it down on a table, the sound will be crippled.

It's probably the speaker, an air vent doesn't really make much sense in that configuration. It probably doesn't even have an internal fan. The A5 still gets 10 hours of battery life, so I doubt it runs significantly hotter.

Neeliosis said:

Lol. But they downgraded the speaker from stereo to mono. Plus, when you put it down on a table, the sound will be crippled.

Click to expand...

The iPad 1 had stereo speakers? As I recall there was only a speaker hole on one side of the device, not on both sides. We also haven't seen the interal configuration of this model, wait until iFixit gets ahold of it. If the iPad 1 had stereo speakers from a single location, then why wouldn't this one?

Neeliosis said:

Lol. But they downgraded the speaker from stereo to mono. Plus, when you put it down on a table, the sound will be crippled.

Click to expand...

The first one had two mono speakers.

That's because it's so ugly.. Even the pic on the site barely show it

Neeliosis said:

Lol. But they downgraded the speaker from stereo to mono. Plus, when you put it down on a table, the sound will be crippled.

Click to expand...

The iPad speaker is mono in the current model.

NachoGrande said:

That's because it's so ugly.. Even the pic on the site barely show it

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Haha. You can barely see it, it's a very small perforation like the MBP speakers. If you look at the liveblog photos you can't even tell it's there:

Ouch....

That's worrying.

With that amount of metal to hole ratio, I'd not even be surprised if the iPad2 has a worse sounds output than iPad1.

really something I want to know about before thinking about a purchase.

I thought there would be a much coarser grill for the sound to get out of.

That bottom pic confirms my worst fears. Laying the new model onto ANY soft surface it going to totally kill any sound output

Piggie said:

Ouch....I thought there would be a much coarser grill for the sound to get out of.

Click to expand...

And dirt/crap to get in.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm more worried about the headphone jack. I hope we are not going back to the iPhone 1's weird headphone jack.

Piggie said:

Ouch....
That bottom pic confirms my worst fears. Laying the new model onto ANY soft surface it going to totally kill any sound output

Click to expand...

Looks like it curves up pretty far onto the edge to me, in fact if you look none of that speaker grill seems to be flat.. It depends on the internal layout too, I doubt the speaker is right there, it's probably just channeled to that location, like on the iPad 1.

a cutout for a case will be ugly. I love my SGP Pouch all leather case. Very nice looking and sleek. I can't picture the same case with an ugly hole for the whatever that grill is for and a rear camera.

The main point is they went from 2 speakers to one and moved it to the back- away from you. For those of us who really value quality sound while surfing- the recently reduced iPad 1 is looking better and better.

Same Ram, same screen, insignificant weight and thickness reductions, no use for camera on a tablet...

Would a slightly faster CPU really make a 2 second difference in web page load speed?

Even with the laser poked holes I'm not liking that speaker on the back, I mean heck why put the speaker when it's constantly pointing away from you and if you lay it down on a table you'll hear nothing... I'm still baffled by that move..

Nishi100 said:

When looking on the iPad 2's specs page on Apple.com it doesn't label the speaker gill on the bottom of the iPad, Steve didn't even mention it at the event and there isn't a "feature" page for it.

Therefore, leading me to believe that it's not a speaker - but an air vent for the dual core CPU and great graphics.

What do you think?

Click to expand...

I think that Apple know that IT'S JUST A SPEAKER... Also, it will NOT get muffled if laid on its back, and personally, I much prefer the overall design of the thing.

That70sGAdawg said:

The main point is they went from 2 speakers to one and moved it to the back- away from you. For those of us who really value quality sound while surfing- the recently reduced iPad 1 is looking better and better.

Same Ram, same screen, insignificant weight and thickness reductions, no use for camera on a tablet...

Would a slightly faster CPU really make a 2 second difference in web page load speed?

Click to expand...

you dont know its the same RAM

Gryzor said:

I think that Apple know that IT'S JUST A SPEAKER... Also, it will NOT get muffled if laid on its back, and personally, I much prefer the overall design of the thing.

Click to expand...

It will if you lay it on a soft surface.
If you wish to lay it on a bed cover say, then you will almost need to put it onto a large book first if you don't want to block the speaker grill.

FSUSem1noles said:

Even with the laser poked holes I'm not liking that speaker on the back, I mean heck why put the speaker when it's constantly pointing away from you and if you lay it down on a table you'll hear nothing... I'm still baffled by that move..

Click to expand...

Just like most cell phones, it makes no sense and everyone overlooks it!
One of the reasons I hang onto my Blackberry Bold 9000 (as a work phone) is the great stereo speakers on the side - the sound comes toward you (even with some separation). I may have to wait for the Blackberry Playbook now (which has large stereo speakers).
You don't always have a speaker system to plug it into while traveling, and some people don't like headphones in hotels etc. that block out other sounds.

3goldens said:

you dont know its the same RAM

Click to expand...

Come on ! They would have mentioned it if it was increased, or they did increase it to 512 and are embarrassed since most tablets have 1GB!

Just disappointed - I was ready to pick one up, but now may look for a bargain iPad1 !

That70sGAdawg said:

The main point is they went from 2 speakers to one and moved it to the back- away from you. For those of us who really value quality sound while surfing- the recently reduced iPad 1 is looking better and better.

Same Ram, same screen, insignificant weight and thickness reductions, no use for camera on a tablet...

Would a slightly faster CPU really make a 2 second difference in web page load speed?

Click to expand...

Apple has never discussed the RAM, but there is no reason to believe that it doesn't have at least 512MB.

2x is not a "slightly faster" CPU, and a 9x faster GPU will be good; action games will be smoother and like the iPhone 4 the new GPU will allow for more complex textures, shading, and lighting.

So yes, and double speed CPU with at least twice as much RAM will make a significant difference in page processing time. The faster GPU also means that the pages will render quicker.

As far as the speaker, while this is speculation until there is a teardown, I'll take one stereo speaker over two mono speakers in the old one. Its also possible that the speaker still points in the same direction as the old iPad and Apple left more space in front to aid with sound and volume.

That70sGAdawg said:

Come on ! They would have mentioned it if it was increased, or they did increase it to 512 and are embarrassed since most tablets have 1GB!

Just disappointed - I was ready to pick one up, but now may look for a bargain iPad1 !

Click to expand...

Apple didn't announce the iPhone 4's RAM, even though it was doubled, but they did talk about the CPU and GPU, just like they have on the new iPad. I'm happy you won't buy one, one less person in line before me.

FSUSem1noles said:

Even with the laser poked holes I'm not liking that speaker on the back, I mean heck why put the speaker when it's constantly pointing away from you and if you lay it down on a table you'll hear nothing... I'm still baffled by that move..

Click to expand...

pic shows speaker grill curving upward, so can be heard when laying flat.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/apple-ipad-2-hands-on/#3938711

That70sGAdawg said:

Come on ! They would have mentioned it if it was increased, or they did increase it to 512 and are embarrassed since most tablets have 1GB!

Just disappointed - I was ready to pick one up, but now may look for a bargain iPad1 !

Click to expand...

Actually during the first iPad introduction no mention was made of the ram amount... it wasn't until iFixit did a teardown that we found out what was inside... I assume that by late afternoon/early evening 3/11 we will know just how much ram is inside, but not before then...

Nevermind my reply... darngooddesign beat me to it...

darngooddesign said:

As far as the speaker, while this is speculation until there is a teardown, I'll take one stereo speaker over two mono speakers in the old one. Its also possible that the speaker still points in the same direction as the old iPad and Apple left more space in front to aid with sound and volume.

Click to expand...

There is no such thing as one stereo "speaker", it would be "speakers" Humm... In Atlanta, you must be a ga tech grad attacking my statements and opinions . Ha ..